Cinema

[Scythe]

No more film festival. I missed out on the last couple of movies because I had worn myself out. Happens. So anyway, final high/low-lights:

Whatever you do with your life, don't Enter the Void. The premise seems to have been, if you die while on an ecstacy trip, your soul will linger on ecstacy until you reincarnate. When that happens to a f*** up moron with a thing for his promiscuous sister, you're in for a borefest of epic proportions. Why tell a story about banal people in 30 minutes when you can do it in 3 hours? When every scene and every scene transition can be dragged out by focusing on blinking lights for 30 seconds at a time, you can make a very long movie. Also, this will trigger epilectic seizures for sure. I mean, come on! At one point the screen blinks white/red for a whole damn minute! Overheard while leaving the theater:

Girl 1: I thought the sex scenes in that movie were really embarrassing.
Girl 2: I thought the whole movie was really embarrassing.

Faux 70s seem to be the big thing these days, illustrated to perfection by Rutger Hauer's always eminent screen presence as a Hobo with a Shotgun. The vigilante movie lives again! Yeah, so it's over the top, with hysterical acting and realism out the window, but boy, does it deliver. When the armored motorcycle knights ride out their lair, dragging a coffin behind their motorcycles, you don't just accept it, you start hooting.

Finally, because the festival wouldn't have been complete without my favorite kind of movie, Reign of Assassins brings the martial arts epic to the starved little boy who's been aching to see Michelle Yeoh kick more ass. I believe she's about 50 now, but she's as attractive and ass-kicking as ever. Anyway, the movie is your very basic Chinese plot, with assassins going good, lots of vengeance and betrayal, some light comedy, and plenty of wires. While it's not outstanding, because the plot is something we've seen before, and the fu is not all that strong, all in all it's still a complete package that's lifted by Michelle's stellar performance. I certainly left with a smile on my face.

[Pater Alf]

Four Lions
Is it ok to make a comedy about a group of British jihadists who plan to do homicidal bomb attacks on the London marathon? It sure is as long as it is as funny as this movie. Ok, sometimes it is quite dark humour and the laugh will get stuck inside your throat, but if you like that kind of humuor it is hilarious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew-SrlQ9tlI

Brighton Rock
They transported Graham Greene's from the 30s to the 60s, so now it takes place during the time of riots between mods and rockers. No idea why they did that, because it doesn't make a difference to the story. The movie is very stylish and stand-offish, but it isn't a really good movie. Most of the time it was hard to understand why the characters acted the way they did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoGHiBsrJKk

The King's Speech
A great movie! Colin Firth is brilliant as the stuttering king George VI who have to fight with every word leaving his mouth. Definitely worth watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsxjM03M ... ure=relmfu

White Box
A documentary about the small German town Löbau where an act of bureaucratic imbecility took place. There are many people who live from social welfare and if their appartments are to big (just a certain size is allowed), a single room was locked, so it couldn't be used any longer. The movie deals with the question what it means to the people and how these locked rooms work as a place for their hopes and dreams. Quite interesting!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tatPhrgSol4

[Pater Alf]

In a Better World (Haevnen)
A movie about broken families, juvenile confusion and anger and the escalation and consequences of violence.
Main characters are the two ten-year-old boys Elias and Christian. Elias' father works as a doctor in an African war region and his parents are going to divorce. Christian's mother died of cancer and his father can hardly talk about it. Both boys are full of confusion and anger. They become friends when Christian helps Elias who is being bullied at school. But with their friendship a fatal spiral of violence and revenge starts and it is not clear if it can be stopped before something really bad will happen.

I liked the other movies of Susanne Bier ("After the Wedding", "Brothers") as well, but this one is her masterpiece so far. Brilliantly written, filmed, directed and acted. Maybe the best movie I saw this year and the academy award as best foreign movie is certainly well deserved.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ava0Rn8n ... re=related

[moshboy]

I've seen a number of movies lately.. most memorably Source Code, which I thought was pretty solid sci-fi. Always liked Jake since Donnie Darko. Kindof a serious sci-fi Groundhog Day would be the best way to describe it. Recommended.

[Pater Alf]

True Grit
Jeff Bridges is great as always (which is no surprise, but I was disappointed nonetheless. I think western is one of the few genres that you have to take serious. Funny westerns simply don't work for me an in "True Grit" there was too much of the typical Coen humour (which I normally like very much).



La tête en friche
Not what I expected. I thought it would be a nice summer movie about the power of literature, but instead most scenes were about relationships and in many of them the main protagonist (played by Gerard Depardieu) was humiliated. Worst scenes were the flashbacks from his childhood. I didn't like those and thought they were hard to watch. But maybe that was because I had to think of some of the kids I worked with in the past and how similar behaviour broke them.

Might not be a bad movie, but in my eyes it was promoted as something completely different as it really is.



Le nom des gens
Finally something I liked. A wonderful love story from France. A young hippie woman (that has a great method to turn around fascist people) meets a withdrawn man. Doesn't sound too interesting, but it is very funny and even if it has lots of serious sub-context, it always stay light as a summer breeze.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9maqVS-6ZE&NR=1

[Pater Alf]

X-Men: First Class
Marvel's superhero-mutants against evil nazis, russians and the cuba crisis. Completely stupid with some of the worst dialogues I've heard in the last time. But when you turn off you brain, you could have fun with some of the action scenes (especially the ones with the bad mutants)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8ccSiH4olo

Princess
A Danish animated film about a priest who has to take care of 5-year-old niece after his sister died. She was a pornstar and soon he finds out that the little girl was abused by her manager and boyfriend and he wants to take vengeance on him.

I thought this might be interesting, but in fact it was just crappy and nauseating. There's a message of vigilante justice that no clear-thinking person can agree to, but the worst part is that the "hero" abuses the girl again (not sexual but in a psychical way) to get his revenge. Probably one of the worst movies I ever saw.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV_1nYpNL2A

[Scythe]

X-Men movies will never live up to the comics, sadly. Still, it was a decent effort at rebooting the series and far superior to the latest attempts at X-Men movies. I kinda like Kevin Bacon playing villains, even if he didn't have anything much to do besides gloat in a superior manner. It all seemed a bit campy, but that tends to happen when you put your movies in the 60s.

As for Princess... you're basing your worst movie opinion on the fact that you didn't care for the message as you saw it, and an unsympathetic protagonist? That's a little harsh, but I understand since I tend to backlash cruelly on messages I disagree with as well. I didn't care much for the movie either, but I did read it a bit differently. From having a bit more background, I know the director/etc. is so hell bent against porn that you kind of see where he's coming from. Also, the whole vigilante thing was a comment on religious fanatacisim. It's like pitting two extremes against each other - porn as the evil, child molesting, all for $$$ and personal satisfaction industry and religion as the righteous, holier-than-thou, crusading, smite-thee-with-my-vengeance fanaticism. I didn't find that either was represented as sympathetic, but it's been some years since I saw it, so maybe my memory is clouded.

[Chroelle]

I have to say that I saw Princess for about 10 minutes and then decided to see something else... I think it was bad as well, and the whole atmosphere was very *meh* to me.

[Pater Alf]

As for Princess... you're basing your worst movie opinion on the fact that you didn't care for the message as you saw it, and an unsympathetic protagonist?

No, I'm basing it on the fact that a child was abused in several ways in that and the writer/director took a very strange position to these deeds. On the one hand he said that the sexual abuse was evil (which is of course right), on the other hand the psychical abuse (as well as physical abuse in some scenes) seems to be ok for him and even lead to salvation for the protagonists. If that should have been a comment on religious fanatacism, it was well hidden and I didn't see it in that context.
And it wasn't the worst movie I ever saw, but just one of the worst.

[Pater Alf]

Norwegian Wood
Toru, Kizuki and Naoko have been friends since there childhood days. Then Kizuki commits suicide leaving his girlfriend and his best friend behind. After some time they meet again in Tokyo and get closer and finally fall in love. On her 20th birthday Toru sleeps with Naoko which leads to some hurtful memories of Kazuki, to her mental breakdown and to a long stay in a mental home. Meanwhile Toru meets another girl that seems to fhave feelings for him.

Visually and sensually the movie was overwhelming, but you shouldn't expect a straight narrative plot as the whole thing is more about feelings and emotions than about a clear story. And as in many Japanese movies there is that kind of emotional distance that seems to be confusing for many people in Europe.

[Pater Alf]

Source Code
"Groundhog Day" with a thriller plot. Much better than I expected untill Duncan Jones ("Moon") messed it up with a super-mega-happy-end. Might be a good idea to cut away the last 15 minutes.

[Pater Alf]

My favourite cinema showed a collection of short horror movies tonight:

Black XXX-Mas
A trash version of "Little Red Riding Hood". Not really a suspense movie, but lots of sex and gore instead.

Bom!
The movie version of an old urban legend. Not very original, but well filmed and quite effective

Die Kneipe
I think I speak for the whole audience when I say: "Huh? What the hell was this movie about?"

To Kill a Bumblebee
Not really a horror movie, but very funny with some black humour.

Les Escarpins Sauvages
The story might not be very original, but the look of the movie and the traditional stop-motion-effects are great.

Linda
A short "The Exorcist" parody. Quite funny if you like British humour.

The Man Who Eats Himself
Interesting animated music video.

Through the Night
Ok, that was really scary!

[Chroelle]

Ok - The man who ate himself is simply plain sick, and a great idea for something borderseeking.
I am not gonna wath Through the night after watching the trailer - same reason I am not going to watch Paranormal activity 1 or 2 - I like my sleep, and I will miss it if I cant have it anymore...

Yesterday I couched up with the family and watched Tangled (Disney) which was way better than I expected - being a family guy I will recommend this one to other family guys. After the kids went to sleep me and Tanja watched Due Date and after that I saw The Social Network - Tanja fell asleep after 10 minutes because the evening had also been used tugging Anna in 2000 times... I recommend all of these for a cosy evening on the couch!

The social network was not what I expected, but good! Due date felt like "Hangover's" littlebrother - but that is still a cool family to be in.

[Pater Alf]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 (2D)
The end of a long journey. Again pretty good for a mainstream popcorn movie and pretty dark for a family movie. The last battle for Hogwarts is really impressing and if you haven't read the books before you get rewarded with some nice story twists that you probably won't foresee.

[Pater Alf]

Incendies
When her mother dies a young woman finds out that everything she knew about her was a lie. So she returns to Lebanon to find out the truth about her family and the terrible things that happened to her mother during the civil war. One after another she reveals the dark family secrets, but sometimes it might be good not to know the whole truth.

From time to time there are movies that hit you so hard that you will never forget them and this is one of them. Intense and touching from the very first moment till the end and brilliant when it comes to story and visuals. A real masterpiece!

[Pater Alf]

The Infidel
A comedy about a muslim in London who finds out that he was adopted and originally born as a jew. The movie has some funny scenes, but on the other hand misses many chances to mock about prejudices and fundamentalists on both sides. By far not as good (or as black-humoured) as "Four Lions".



Eine Insel namens Udo
German comedy about an invisible man who works as a store detective. When he finds a woman who can see him, he falls in love, becomes visible and the problems for him begin.
Unfortunately this wasn't a good movie. The only funny thing is the basic plot and after half an hour you can't even laugh about that anymore.



Jodaeiye Nader az Simin (Nader and Simin - A Seperation)
Irani movie about guilt and sin and the breakdown of traditional family systems. Brilliantly written and acted and well deserved winner of several film festivals around the globe (e.g. Berlin, Sydney and Durban).

[Pater Alf]

Beginners
Oliver feels very lonely. He lost his mother 5 years ago and his father 2 months ago to cancer. The he meets Anna, a French actress, and falls in love. For the first time in his life he tries everything to make the relationship work and not leave the woman again when things get too close. At the same time he remembers his father who had his homosexual coming-out and started a new life at the age of 75.

I would call this a dramedy. More sad scenes than funny ones, but yet not depressing but very life-affirming instead. Very well done!

[eMTe]

Ive watched Last King of Scotland. I dont understand the hype about this movie, it looks like all opinions about it are politically motivated. I can understand that Whitaker's role drives the movie (but I dont think that it's that great), but the plot is just absurd. Movie is full of holes, unexpected and unexplainable twists, and, most important, the whole idea of throwing a non-existing character into real historical events fails. I dont understand what was the point of making this movie. It doesn't tell anything neither about Amin, nor about the Scottish guy, nor about the dictatorship or winds of history. It fails on every field, balancing between comedy and typical hollywoodian drama/romance flick. Because it's a movie with so raving reviews I dislike it even more.

Avoid at all costs.

Note: I havent read the book, however I had an opportunity. I cant say if the storyline makes more sense in it than in the movie and if there are any major changes.

[Zyx]

Avoid at all costs.

I did quite like it, but I saw it a long time ago. Sure, the movie doesn't really know what it wants to be. Even though Whitaker makes a great performance to portray a insane dictator, the movie instead focuses on the moral growth-story of a white man and in the end turns to a escape thriller. I did not find any comedy in the film.

Using the historical airplane hijack as the culmination point for the movie was a bit forced. I think it helps if you don't think about it as a fictional character in a real historical events because in the end, it's all fiction here. It could have been a good portrayal of Africa and its madmen in power, but focuses too much on the pretty white man and his growing conscience.

[eMTe]

Comedy? The T-shirt scene, the flatulence scene.

As for the moral growth of the boy I also didnt notice it, not to mention that movie also fails to show how Amin turns into madman. First part of the movie is constructed from idyllic rustical images and the "funny" scenes, second one is just plain thriller with love triangle in the background. There are no believable scenes showing the growing conscience of the doctor, nor the growing madness of Amin. Suddenly in the middle of the movie things just change - Garrigan is now on the good side, while Amin is cruel dictator. Good director and producer would turn the book into serious drama, maybe even adding some scenes, instead we received deeply flawed film having no sense as a whole.